The Journals of General Adama, Commonwealth Minutemen
by Leviathansfist
Summary: With the Institute no more than a memory, it now falls on the Minutemen to defend the Commonwealth against an enemy that relies on brute force, instead of subterfuge. Having forged an alliance with the Gunners, the Brotherhood of Steel has settled in for the long-haul with the express purpose of dominating the Commonwealth. (Includes mod references)
1. 2289, April 17

Eighteen months ago, this was a strange new world, but now, somehow, I am in charge of its destiny. I am still trying to wrap my brain around that one. Eight years as a Marine, 200 as a human meatcicle, and somehow I am qualified to lead an army that is supposed to establish order in a region of anarchy called the Commonwealth?

All I wanted to do when I came out of the big sleep was avenge my wife and find my son… Well, I did both, but there were a few unexpected developments along the way. In fact, I wouldn't even bother writing this if it weren't for the constant proddings from one of those "developments". Piper is nothing if not persistent. "Write it down Blue…" I guess after you hear something a thousand times, it starts to take root.

Since this is my first entry, I feel I had better include a SITREP.

The general euphoria that had filled the majority of the Commonwealth after the Institute was vaporized was short lived. Within the first 10 days it was apparent that the Brotherhood of Steel was intending to stay. With their "We are right and everyone else is wrong" mindset and their overwhelming xenophobic practices, their departure was an event we were all looking forward to.

Danse had warned me that I was being overly optimistic, but I disregarded his opinion and was caught off guard when a Brotherhood scribe showed up at the Castle telling me the Elder Maxon wanted to talk to me and that I was being "summoned" to the Prydwyn. Summoned? That arrogant asshat was summoning me to his blimp? How about – No. I admit that my initial response could have been better worded, but we finally agreed to meet in Diamond City at the Dugout Inn for a conversation.

Almost immediately, Maxon made it clear that the Brotherhood had found enough technical data and technology to warrant their remaining here. It was when I attempted to explain to him that whatever was in the Commonwealth was going to stay in the Commonwealth for the benefit of the people that he left, warning me to keep my band of "miscreants" out of the way of the true power in the area..

Fourteen days after the Institute was erased, the Brotherhood launched three coordinated attacks against the Castle, Starlight Drive in, and Sanctuary Hills. Military, strategic and personal. To their surprise, we managed to repel all three attacks, but at great cost. By far the biggest for them was their loss of 4 vertibirds with associated crews when they hit the Castle. I am pretty sure they weren't expecting the 14.5mm heavy machine guns we had installed for air defense only 24 hours before. That battle was over almost as soon as it started. The attack at Starlight cost several lives, but the Brotherhood also learned a lesson about underestimating "simple farmers". They wanted to disrupt our main caravan hub for the north, but instead were schooled by 30 pissed of settlers that had all been outfitted with assault and combat rifles by the Minutemen. Expecting pipe weapons and getting a mouthful of .45 and 5.57 had to be a real shocker for those Brotherhood fanatics. "Semper Invictus" that, you dickheads.

Sanctuary Hills... Maxon did his homework on my friends and I. He figured out that it was a kind of central hub and gathering place. He recognized it for what it is - Home. I am still not positive that he knew I was there when the attack occurred - I have a feeling that if he did, it would have been a lot heavier. It was 3:00am when the sound of the perimeter turrets woke us up. Set 100 meters in front of the guard posts, these turrets are not only the first line of defense, but the early warning system. Within minutes every person in Sanctuary was up and in motion, armed for bear. Faces around me reflected every thing from fear to anger. I remember the Longs hunkering down in place with Marcy, annoying bitch that she is, complaining about security shortcomings. (I can't count the number of times I have thought about putting a round in her head and dumping her body in the lake out back...) I saw Strong, genius that he is, running into the middle of a group of power armor clad Knights with a supersledge and going berserk, scattering them like bowling pins. There had to be 40-50 Brotherhood goons coming in from all 4 sides carrying everything from assault rifles to mini-guns. They knew we had only one or two suits of power armor in sanctuary and had us out armored about 10/1. What they didn't know was that we had two of the PTR-71s that we had pulled out of a vertibird taken out by super mutants a few days before. The biggest damn gun I have ever seen, these bastards use the same rounds as the heavy machine guns as the Castle. By the time Sturges and I had gotten into the watchtower in the middle of town, houses were burning and I saw bodies in yards and in the streets. I saw a look of cold hatred cross over Sturges's face illuminated by the light of burning houses.

"Kill them all.." Those were the only words he said.

One by one, we started taking out the knights in power armor. Each one that dropped was accompanied by the sound of the report of the rifles and the distinctive explosions of the HE ammo. It took four or five knights going down before the Brotherhood understood that they had lost both momentum and advantage. Sturges and I were relentless and dropped another five of the heavies before they managed to get to the their extraction point on the other side of the ridgeline. Before we were able to launch the counter attack, three vertibirds had arrived to extract the remaining attackers.

In dawn's light we took inventory and performed a roll call. On the positive, we acquired five more full set of the T-60 power armor with plenty of spare parts. Of the 10 PA frames, 9 were useable. We recovered a few thousand rounds of ammunition, five assault rifles, four combat rifles, a minigun, and a gauss rifle. While I am sure that this was a heavy loss for the Brotherhood, it didn't compare to the casualties we sustained. We had lost 16 people in the attack and had sustained 47 wounded. While this was bad enough news, learning that Mama Murphy was among the dead dealt a blow that was as hard as it was unexpected. That, more than anything, made this victory feel like a defeat. For as odd as that old bird was, she was the glue for Sanctuary Hills. After freeing herself from the chems, she had become a mother to everyone that came in and was loved by all. Though we all felt the blow, Strong was inconsolable. Somehow, Mama Murphy had developed a special relationship with him. She was so small and feeble, but she was also the first person to tell him to shut up. When he tried to rage at her, she slapped him in the face and told him that he needed to be still and quiet. I don't think anyone had ever treated him like that and, via her fearlessness, she became something of a surrogate parent to him. Now she is gone and I am not sure he fully understands what loss is. He kind of reminds me of a puppy waiting for its owner to come home, constantly wandering over to her room and then back to his own, but there is one thing for sure, he wants revenge.

On a day that was meant to break our spirit, the Brotherhood accomplished the exact opposite. Within 24 hours, the number of settlements allied with the Minutemen doubled, our ranks swelled, and we even had raider leaders requesting amnesty and permission to join settlements for them and their followers. On top of our successful defense against Brotherhood aggression, confirmed reports were starting to come in from elsewhere around the Commonwealth of packs of Gunners carrying out a scorched earth campaign wearing Brotherhood colors.

It has begun.

War never changes.


	2. 2289, April 19

2289, April 19

Edward Deegan was promoted to Colonel today.

Having left the employ of the Cabot family following the death of Lorenzo Cabot, Edward offered his special services to the Slog. Wiseman, knowing a good thing when he saw it, hired him immediately. It was there, a few months back, that Edward approached me with a novel, if not genius, idea that he and Wiseman had been discussing.

An all ghoul special operations group. The concept was based around the fact that ferals tend to ignore non-feral ghouls. What if, the question was posited, a group of volunteers was put together that would serve as an intel gathering and shock attack unit. In its basic form the unit would employ non-feral ghouls to "go feral" and, for short durations of time, live amongst the ferals. They would be able to move about virtually unnoticed anywhere ferals resided and collect intel undetected. In addition, when needed, they could whip the ferals into a frenzy and lead them into confrontations with Brotherhood and Gunner units to disrupt operations.

Feeling that it was both brilliant and suicidal at the same time, I told him to call me when he had the details ironed out. Needless to say, I was surprised when he arrived at the Castle four days ago with an entourage of 15 ghouls. He explained to me that his men were broken into three squads, North, Mid, and South. Each man was equipped with basic survival gear, a silenced high caliber pistol, a dozen signal smoke grenades, and small, man portable shortwave radios built by Jack Cabot. (More on Jack Cabot later.)

Needless to say, I was impressed by not only Deegan's determination, but his ability to convince 15 people to undertake this mission. Now, thanks to him, we have our first covert operations unit which is, honestly, nothing I had even considered at this point. Tonight there is to be a feast at the Castle for these men before they set out to their jump off points in groups of five. Starlight Drive-In, Hangman's Alley, and Somerville Place are to be the hubs for their activities allowing for both resupply and artillery support if needed. All three locations were chosen for their proximity to feral populations and our ability to rain death on a target of their choosing. The missions are to run for a month, followed by debriefings and down time to reconnect with friends and their settlements. Eventually, our intention is to have two sets of these operatives that can rotate in and out. Deegan has informed me that he is already working on a second group of volunteers.

Side note: I need to do something about Danse. I completely understand his needing to come to grips with discovering that he is a synth, but his self-pity party act is REALLY getting old. I may talk to Desdemona about shipping his ass off to work with the Railroad for a bit. In a time when it seemed that their necessity had passed, the presence of the Brotherhood and their new allies has necessitated their continued existence, just with a different focus. There were apparently far more synth operatives in the field than estimated and little by little, they are finding their way into the system. Lacking directives, their programming has seemed to have kicked into a "self-preservation" mode.


	3. 2289, May 1

I guess these entries are going to be a mix of SITREPS and ruminations. What the hell, Piper has been encouraging me (read as "bugging the hell out of me") to keep writing.

The Cabots -

After coming to terms with their new found mortality, the Cabots seem hellbent on leaving behind their "mark" on the Commonwealth. Emogene has started to work with the Railroad with synth memory issues and Jack has become a regular tinkerer and has become an fast friends with "Tinker" Tom. Between Tom's conspiracy theories (the Institute wanted to be destroyed so they could go even deeper underground is the latest...) and Jack's stories about the alien civilization that Lorenzo found, when those two start at it, everyone just kind of leaves... I will make note now - I have ZERO intention of every revealing any hint of having a weapon that I took off of an alien I killed. I have remained aloof and completely non-committal to date, and I intend on keeping it that way. If those to brilliant nut jobs ever found out about the gun, I would get sucked into a whole new level of crazy that I am no where near prepared to deal with.

Moving forward.

Jack is presently leading the charge on reverse engineering anything we pick-up from the Brotherhood that we currently don't have. In addition, he has, to date, modified 5 suits of the T-60 PA into Tesla variants that not only increase damage produced by energy weapons, but that can also generate a field of static electricity that will shock the crap out of anyone stupid enough to try to melee against a person wearing PA. As of this writing, he is also in the process of trying to confirm that a set of blueprints for an undeveloped H&K assault rifle actually exist. If they do, it might be the excuse I need to get out of the damn office for awhile. He did a smash-up job in getting the AN94 Abakan into production that we picked up from the Bobrov brothers. Those knuckleheads were sitting on that damn thing for years and treating it like it was nothing... A fully auto assault rifle that weighed half of what was available in the commonwealth... I swear those two are the only people that I would be hesitant to put into a Minutemen uniform. I have visions of Vadeem firing his weapon into the air and saying something like, "You know, just for joke! Eh?"

It was also the dynamic duo of Jack and Tom (They sound like a pair of morning DJs...) that brought Saugus Ironworks fully online in a way that isn't blatantly obvious that we are in production of weapons and munitions. We just saw our first batch of the AN94s come out and testing seems to verify that they have actually produced a useable weapon. The biggest issue that I have heard about so far in regards to that place is the smell. I take full responsibility for the bodies that littered the ground outside. Literally. It was also my choice to string them up, "raider style" to give the appearance of a raider presence. Anything else and it would be open season for the Brotherhood. Settlers would be hit and if they saw Minutemen there, they would target it specifically. With "just raiders" in control of the plant, they leave it be, hunting for Minutemen and Super Mutants instead. It is a non-threat in their eyes, nor is it a target of their xenophobic fanaticism.

In other areas.

I sent Sturges and Hancock down to talk with the Atom Cats. The Cats have a sublime understanding of power armor and would be a great group to have as "Official" allies to the Minutemen. I figured that Sturges has the mechanical know how and that Hancock has an attitude they could appreciate. That was confirmed when I talked to them about the mission and Hancock responded, "Yeah, that's be cool. I could get behind that action, ya feel me?" Yes, Hancock, I feel you, now get your drug addled ass down there and get my alliance...

Virgil has taken up residence in the tunnels beneath the Castle. Fully cured of his FEV, he has taken it upon himself to work on medicines and bio-science under the protection of the Minutemen. With the help of a few locals, he has completed construction of a subterranean lab. He has repeatedly assured me of its safety, but I am still hesitant to give him the full green light until he gives me a list of proposed projects. I have no doubt of his brilliance, but he did work on FEV research and look how well that turned out.

On a more personal note.

Duncan Macready is now home. RJ and Cait are now living in Home Plate, which was my wedding gift to them. Duncan has been enrolled into school and, from what I gather, is doing quite well. He was also the only kid to complete an extra credit project for the science geeks in DC and managed to bring in a rad scorpion stinger. I am sure having the parents he has was a big part of that... I have visions of a Macready family outing with RJ and Cait killing rad scorpions with Duncan in tow... That kid is either going to be tough as nails or completely psycho. Just to top of this entry of Macready Madness, Piper and I are about 90% sure that Cait has a bun in the oven. Piper, of course, noticed that Cait was getting a little thick around the middle and I have heard RJ comment more than once on some of her stranger food requests over the last few weeks. While happy for them, if true, the thought of an addition to the Macready brood leaves one open to certain trepidations...

Finally.

Preston has expressed concern for Strong, which completely warps my brain. Preston concerned for a super mutant... We are indeed entering into a brave new world... Apparently, since the death of Mama Murphy, Strong has been sharpening weapons. A lot of weapons. In fact, I have been informed that he has sharpened more weapons than he can carry. The bizarre part.. ok... more bizarre part, is that Preston is not worried about Strong going on some form of rampage, but instead worried about his mindset and depression. A depressed Super Mutant. I am still letting that one sink in. My original idea to have Jun and Marcy talk to him about coping with loss was, admittedly, a "famously horrible idea." I thought it might be bad, but I feel that Piper summed it up better. At this point, I am still up in the air on how to deal with this development. I am about 100% sure that - a) Super Mutants have zero coping ability and, b) Super Mutants aren't supposed to feel loss or remorse.

I ask myself daily about what I have gotten myself into, but, thanks to Piper's encouragement, I think I might just be able to pull this off.


	4. 2289, May 16

Jack Cabot has confirmed the existence of blueprints for that H&K being in the Commonwealth. His sources have found actual documentation of not only the blueprints, but their location as well. Tomorrow, I am heading out to the Glowing Sea with Nick for a little adventure. It is about damn time, I have been suffering from cabin fever for what seems like an eternity. Hardest part was convincing Piper that she should not come along. I picked Nick specifically because, well, he is a synth and the radiation poses no risk to him at all. Of course Ellie is all up in arms, but he told me that she would get over it. Those two... they are quite an interesting pair. They are looking more natural together now, since Tinker Tom crafted new "skin" for him and Emogene added a blinking subroutine. You can still tell he is not human, but it takes longer than before. The blinking REALLY helps.

I digress.

Nick and I are planning to be out for about a week. The journey to and from the base where the plans are supposed to be is about a six day round trip and I can't imagine the exploration of the base to take more than a day. We will be armed to the teeth and you can count on My grabbing the X-01 PA. It has the highest rad resist and that nifty auto-stimpack thingy. I fully intend to fulfill My promise to Piper and get home in one piece. Stimpacks galore and a metric shit ton of roasted mirelurk. Piper pointed out that we still have about 100 pounds of mirelurk queen meat in the freezers... How is that good thing? I am so damn tired of mirelurk. Mirelurk casserole. Mirelurk jerky. Mirelurk kabob. Mirelurk soup. Mirelurk salad. Mirelurk Fettucini Alfredo. I should have used a laser to take that bitch out - she could have ended up as an ash pile instead of a friggin endless ingredient in EVERYTHING.

Moving forward...

I don't even know where to start on this next part.

I was recently informed that there was an issue with Codsworth at Sanctuary Hills and that I needed to get there as fast as I could. In a sense, he is my oldest friend here, and I dropped everything, grabbed Piper, and got us on our way. When we arrived, Codsworth was completely inert on the patio of the community center. I admit it - I lost it a little. I ran to the side of that lifeless ball of metal and demanded to know what happened. Then, the strangest thing happened... I heard Codsworth and Curie saying "Surpise!" from behind me. I whipped around and about keeled over. There, standing together, were Curie and a very dapper looking fellow, arm in arm, smiling at me. Before I could say a word, Curie told me that the Railroad had a male synth flatline during a memory reload and that she had convinced them to allow her to talk to the Memory Den to see if she could give Codsworth the same gift that had been given to her. Then, with the blessings of the Railroad, Dr. Amari migrated Codsworth into the synth body. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, Currie and Codsworth had become fascinated with one another and when the opportunity arose for her to acquire a mate/companion, she jumped at it. While it is true that I am still adjusting to seeing Codsworth in a human form, I know he has to be getting used to the same thing. All in all, I think he may have it a little rougher... Still, more power to them. They make a very interesting couple.

The Railroad has a new "Heavy"

Apparently sending Danse to work with the Railroad was one of my better ideas. After I gave her a bit of background on Danse and the tactics I knew him to employ, Desdemona paired him with Glory and, let just say, it worked. The two of them have been working together now for going on two weeks and Danse seems to have come to terms with who and what he is. The two of them together are being referred to as "The Wrecking Crew" and they have adopted the names "Hammer" and "Anvil". Knowing what they are capable of as individuals, imagining the two of them working in tandem with one another if just a feast for the imagination. Apparently one of the biggest problems right now is keeping them supplied with 5mm rounds for their miniguns. Just the thought makes me smile. Any questions or misgivings about Danse were also eliminated 3 days ago when he and Glory were ambushed by a Brotherhood patrol. A well placed grenade threw Glory against a wall, knocking her out cold. Danse, only seeing the explosion and then her flying, crashing into the wall and going limp as she hit the ground went berserk. He emptied the minigun and then proceeded to take out the 2 remaining Brotherhood soldiers with his hands, snapping each of their necks with a single twist of their head. We only know this, because at some point just before he had emptied his weapon, Glory had regained consciousness. She watched him throw the weapon down and then take round after round into the power armor as he made his way towards the two remaining soldiers. When he turned around to head back to where Glory was, she was propped against the wall applauding. Seeing her alive purged his system of adrenaline and brought him to collapse, at which point, she ran to his aid. from there, they made there way back to HQ where Glory made sure that Danse was well taken care of. He had sustained multiple wounds from both bullets and fractured PA components, but was in no danger of death. When asked about the firefight, she repeatedly referred to Danse as her partner, which is a term no one had ever heard her use before.

The Atom Cats are in.

We are expecting Zeke to accompany Hancock and Sturges back to the Castle at some point this week to give our PA situation the once over. Hancock went over sop well that they initiated him into the Cats. That was apparently a night of major chem and alcohol consumption. I will need to talk to him about that... It isn't the image that I want, however, in this case, it may have helped our cause along.

Off to bed. Piper hinted at a grand send off... All I have to say is, remembering the last time she gave me a grand send off, YOWSA!


	5. 2289, May 24

Notes for entry to be written ASAP regarding trip to find H&K blueprints. Tonight, and maybe all day tomorrow and the next few days, I sleep.

Success. Yay.

I hate Deathclaws

Nick is THE man.

I hate feral ghouls.

I hate the Glowing Sea.

Bonus: Power Armor and mines.

Did I mention I hate feral ghouls?


	6. 2289, May 29

Not withstanding the 210 years I spent as a popsicle, I am getting too old for this shit.

"I am so glad you are safe!" She looked me up and down after the huge hug. "Wow... You look like shit!"

Yeah... Thanks Pipes... Glad to see you too...

The thing is, she wasn't wrong. By the time I got back, I honestly looked like I went a few rounds with Cait in the cage.

The trip out went well for the first two days, but I made the mistake of making a positive comment on that, and, well, you know what happens when you do that. I remember Nick telling me exactly that -

"Now, why did you have to go and do that?"

"What?"

"Mention how smooth things were going? In my experience, you have just doomed us to a world of shit."

"Don't be paranoid, Nick."

There is a bit of new found knowledge I wish to share with anyone who may be reading this - VATS does not pick of the signature of a sleeping Deathclaw. That holds true even if there are three of them. Another tidbit of information - Nick was not being paranoid.

Almost as soon as I said that, we crested a ridge that was about 1 mile from our final destination and came face to face with a trio of Deathclaws. Now, I have seen two of them together, and that was bad enough, but three is downright blood draining. To our benefit, they were slightly lethargic, having just been woken up by two jackasses in power armor. They were also decidedly pissed.

"Shit."

"Yeah.. I hate being right..."

I managed to pump three rounds of the Desert Eagle's .50AE rounds into the skull of one of them as Nick opened up on the other two with his good old Spray and Pray. The strength and speed of something so big and ugly has always fascinated me and, at the moment, had I been an observer, that strength and speed would have left me speechless as that big bastard picked me up and body slammed me and the X-01 into the ground like a rag doll. The reality of the situation, however, did not afford me the opportunity to appreciate the sheer brute power of these creatures.

No, I was busy shitting my pants and trying not to die.

On impact, I lost grip on the Desert Eagle and felt it scatter somewhere behind me. I, of course, did the next logical thing - I punched it in the nose. Now, my frenzied logic worked this way - it works on dogs and, allegedly, sharks. Maybe it will work on a Deathclaw? Fortunately, the blow did cause the bastard to let go of me and take a step back. I am not sure if it was pain or confusion, but it worked. I can laugh at it now because when it took the step back, it paused and looked at me for a moment, and the part that gets me to laugh now is the thought that that monster was thinking "Did you just punch me in the nose?! Did you just friggin' punch me in the nose?!"

When it released its grip, I scrambled to grab my pistol. Just as I got my hand wrapped around the grip, he grabbed me by the ankle and picked me up into the air. Another note - a pissed off Deathclaw can hold a man in power armor upside-down by his ankle with one hand. For a split second I saw Nick slowly backing up as he fired a drum full of explosive rounds into the two that he was entertaining. Good... Nicky is doing ok... back to my problem at hand.

Fun Fact: It is really hard to aim when you are dangling by an ankle being held by a Deathclaw.

It was the clunk of he bandolier that reminded me I had another option. I was carrying a few personal explosive items on me as well as the Desert Eagle. I reached down and grabbed whatever my hand latched onto first. That big scaly bastard lifted me to his face and bellowed at the helmet of the X-01, spraying its saliva all over it. I dropped the pistol, pulled the pin and shoved whatever it was that I had in my hand down its throat.

The blue flashing from its gullet elicited a pucker factor of 10. Plasma grenade.

I swung my other foot up and connected hard enough with its claw that the combination of that and the confusion of having a foreign object in its throat caused it to drop me. The grenade went off almost as soon as I hit the ground, messily removing the big guy's head from its torso. One down... now I wondered how Nicky was doing.

"Nick?!"

"Yeah, yeah.. Over here..." I almost chuckled at his deadpan response.

He had been walking backwards, firing nonstop at the other two Deathclaws from time I had started the dance with mine. I followed the trail of blood and brass till I came upon one of the two whose leg Nick had managed to cripple. Four rounds into the back of its skull finished that one off. The sound of gunfire had suddenly stopped, causing me to break into a dead sprint. I heard myself repeating the word "shit" as if it were a mantra. When I turned into the gully that the trail led to, I burst into laughter.

There was Nick, beating in the skull of the last Deathclaw with the but of his rifle.

"Do me a favor, would ya?"

"What's that Nick?"

"Never mention how great things are going when we are out gallivanting around together again? Deal?"

"Deal, Nick."

We went back to our initial point of contact, checked weapons and ammo, gathered the packs we dropped and walked that last mile to the spot on the map that was simply marked "secret military base." When we arrived, sure enough, there was a simple concrete wall set into the side of a hill with a door on it. Nick picked the lock in under a minute. I was carrying 11 frag grenades, my desert Eagle, and the AN93, while Nick had his submachine gun and bull barrel .44. I know the guns fit the look he is going for, but damn, I wish he would modernize his weaponry - at least when we go out. I put my hand on the handle, looked at Nick, and he simply nodded in acknowledgement.

It was on.

It was black. It was so black that you could feel how black it was. A cold chill crept down my spine. Without a word, Nick turned on the headlamp on his set of T-6o and I about jumped out of my skin. Almost as soon as he turned that bastard on we heard the guttural sounds of ferals.

"Dammit, turn that off Nick!"

"Pretty sure they can see in the dark, sport... and you can't. One of us is going to need the light, and it aint me." Problem with Nick - he is correct more often than not.

Before I was able to counter with a witty retort, they came at us... a lot of them. Thank goodness for automatic weapons. I emptied to magazines and Nicky fed a drum through his barrel. Checking through the bodies we found dog tags, ammo, and a few lighters. There were 11 of them strewn about, laying where they fell. Each one a pathetic shell of what used to be a man. At the end of the hall we opted to take the door on the left because the one on the right had a very high grade lock on it that we were going to need a key for. The path we took had little resistance - one or two ferals and the rest was easy sailing. We located a room that had a full suit of X-01 as well as some mines and a Fat Man. Bonus - we would send a recovery team out here to grab those goodies after we returned. In that same room, just sitting on the table was a key.

That was it - a table and a key. As anticlimactic as it was, both of us were pretty damn sure that it was the key we were looking for. In fact, its placement in the very last room sitting in the middle of a table kind of gave it an invisible tag that read - THIS is the key you are looking for. Sure enough, it was the key. Imagine that.

The door that it opened revealed a long staircase leading upwards with a large metal door at the end of it. We cautiously walked up the stairs expecting some kind of traps, but there was nothing. I opened the door and the two of us stared right into what looked like an empty storeroom. we immediately went about looking for some kind of hidden locking device and finally found one at the bottom of a bag of old pre-war currency. Upon activation, a wall slide back to reveal a half destroyed workshop. There, still laid out across a drafting table, were a set of blueprints.

Paydirt.

I gave them the once over and confirmed that they were for the H&K, and as expected, they were. I folded them up and we decided to just get the hell out of the area. Halfway down the stairs, they started to come at us again. This time the ferals seemed stronger and even more aggressive than the first batch.

This time around, the Tesla arcs kept them off of me. Completely ineffective against the Deathclaws, it kept me alive when we were swarmed by the ferals. They managed to knock me to the ground three times, but also jumped back when they got hit with the static burst. There were a couple instances where I damn near lost consciousness, but the auto stim function of the suit did its job and kept me going.

It took us about twice as long to exit the damn bunker as it took us to enter, but we managed to get in and out in under four hours. After a quick discussuion, it was agreed that we would make a beeline out of the Glowing Sea set up camp right at the RadZero line. After a night of rest there, we made our way back to the Castle completely unmolested. While I was surprised by the lack of confrontation, Nick pointed out that not only were we walking around in top end power armor, but that we each also had a Deathclaw head strapped on our packs.

Like I said earlier - Problem with Nick - He is correct more often than not.


	7. 2289, June 10

**SITREP**

 **H &K G39**

It has been almost two weeks since Nick and I returned from the Glowing Sea with the H&K G36 blueprints and it will be another month before we see the first prototype, but the wait will be worth it. Lighter, easier to hold and fire that any other assault rifle we have, the G39 will also add the ability to utilize three different ammunition types found here in the commonwealth, one of those being the .38. While the rounds will be the same old sorry ass .38 rounds we have gobs of, the accuracy and rate of fire will partially compensate for that. The number of Tommy Guns and assault/combat rifles that we have managed to accumulate and disperse to settlements and provisioners has taken the majority of pipe pistols and rifles out of circulation. Hand someone a .45 Combat rifle in exchange for their pipe pistol, and they don't care that they are getting 300 rounds of .45 for almost a thousand rounds of .38.

This has created a massive surplus of the .38. At last count a week ago, Ronnie reported to me that we were nearing 100k rounds of the .38. The craziest swap day was with Wiseman and the Slog. We traded 10 combat rifles and 3 assault rifles for about 20 pipe pistols and close to 20k rounds of the .38. When I asked about the massive quantity of ammunition, Wiseman reminded me that ghouls can scavenge in area that humans can't. Ferals and radiation are pretty much non-factors, so they have greater access to more areas of the Commonwealth.

 **Ghouls**

Super-spies and Super-scavengers... We need more ghouls in the field. I need to talk to Wiseman and Deegan about this. Those two are kind of the de-facto leaders of our ghoul population and I need to see how they would feel about sending a few more of their people out on the scavenging rounds. I would need to include humans in the groups because one or two ghouls by themselves could easily be mistaken for ferals and get taken out before a word could be exchanged. That is one of the reasons that we have been assigning human guards to any provisioners that are sent out from the Slog. The use of bandanas and sunglasses has helped quite a bit as well.

We are still seeing pockets of discrimination towards our ghouls. We are slowly working them into more of our security and recon patrols in an effort to give a broader exposure to the general populace. It seems that seeing a ghoul in a Minuteman uniform helps some people "get it." It will be a gradual process, but I am confident that we can eventually eliminate the prejudices that exist. I know that working with Hancock, Deegan, and Wiseman has pretty much nipped any possible prejudices I had forming after leaving 111 in the bud.

 **K-L-E-O / BOS Hack Attempt**

Apparently the BOS planted a mole in Goodneighbor on an intel gathering mission who, at some point, decided that it would be a good idea to try to hack into K-L-E-O. This was a decidedly poor idea. Apparently K-L-E-O has installed her own custom firewall to prevent just that kind of thing. The mole tried a remote access procedure which was specifically what K-L-E-O has anticipated. Her firewall was designed to emulate a series of successes to any potential hacker while, in reality, she was using a few other pieces of custom hardware to locate the hacker. She would run the faux success scenarios until she located the perp and then proceed to give them the surprise of a lifetime.

By the time the Goodneighbor watch had located the source of the screaming that was echoing through the alleys and streets, K-L-E-O had flayed the man from his neck to his waist. While definitely not a standard procedure the we would employ in our interrogations, she did manage to get him to reveal everything from his name to the combination to the lock on his locker on the Prydwyn. Most important, we have acquired a radio that has the BOS secure frequencies to monitor and a codex for the encoded messages the mole was using. We have started to send in bogus reports to the Prydwyn in an effort to spread a little disinformation. Once confident that there are no suspicions of the mole having been compromised, this system will be used to stage an ambush on BOS forces at the time and place of our choosing.

Personal note: Don't screw with K-L-E-O.

 **Commonwealth Express and Publick Occurences**

As of today, the Commonwealth has the beginnings of a mail and package system in place. With the use of our regional shipping hubs as sorting centers, citizens of the Commonwealth are now able to send letters and packages to any settlement that is part of our network. In addition, Piper's paper is now being distributed to all corners of the Comonwealth. Piper included a call for contributors to give the paper a feel for the wider community. We managed to gather enough advertisers from Diamond City to allow for free distribution for a pretty extended period of time. With the idea of their goods and services being advertised in every corner of the Commonwealth, getting the ads sold was a piece of cake. I am including a copy of Piper's first Commonwealth-wide editorial as a separate entry. Every time a read it, my pride in her grows.


	8. 2289, June 10 - Piper's Editorial

Over 5 centuries ago, on the small wooden bridge that now connects Sanctuary Hills to the Red Rocket in Concord, invaders from a foreign land and the very first Minutemen clashed. It was here that the American Revolution began. Over the next few years, in fields, in forests, from the windows of homes and from the banks of rivers, the patriots of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts fought against the single minded oppression of the occupying British forces. It took time and blood, but in the end, the Minutemen and the citizens of this great land drove those invaders back into the sea and emerged victorious.

We have a history of battling against oppression and what may seem like insurmountable odds, but we always emerge victorious. recently, after bringing terror to the citizens of the Commonwealth for decades, the Institute was reduced to no more than a smoldering hole in the ground. Technologically more advanced and having the ability to create an limitless supply of soldiers to throw into any conflict, the Institute had the advantage. Through sheer will and determination, they were more than defeated, they were erased.

I submit to you that we now have the newest threat to our liberties and freedoms hovering above the old Boston Airport. The ominous black monster that ruins our skyline and threatens those very freedoms that we the people have fought so long for has a name - the Prydwyn. It is a transport vehicle for an order of soldiers called the "Brotherhood of Steel". They have come here to take any technology they may find and to incorporate that into their arsenal of weaponry. They have raided our settlements and farms, killed our people, and have laid siege to the symbol of our freedoms. If you do not accept their point of view, you are deemed to be expendable and are seen as an obstacle to be removed.

They claimed to be here to do battle with the Institute, but still remain after our very own Minutemen destroyed it, showing each and everyone of us that they cannot be trusted. They have attacked the Castle, Starlight Drive-In, and Sanctuary Hills. They have sent agents into our communities to spy on us. These are not the actions of an ally. These are the actions of the Institute and the Red Coats. These are the actions of an enemy.

Each and every citizen out there is being called on to resist. Each and every citizen out there is being called upon to fight. This is not the first time that our freedoms and liberties have been threatened. It will not be the last. resistance is not just in our history, it is in our DNA. It is as much of who we are as it is something we do.

Piper W.


End file.
